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Response from NVFAC, Don Turner.

I just recieved a response to an email I sent NVFAC.

TBG

Hi Tim,

There is a long history behind the Clark County Handgun Registration Ordinance, so a little summary may be in order.

The Nevada Legislature delegates powers to the counties, cities and towns via Nevada Revised Statutes. Without “permission” of the State, subordinate governing bodies have no authority. Consequently, every city and county has enabling NRS (statutes) for their codes and ordinances.

From 1948 until present, mandatory handgun registration (blue card) is enforced in Clark County. In 1989, the NV Legislature passed NRS 244.364 (counties),NRS 268.418 (cities), and NRS 269.222 (towns) which established a uniform state law for all firearms in the State of Nevada. However, the legislature caved to pressure from the Sheriff’s and Chief’s Association (re Clark County Sheriff) and added a “grandfather clause” to the legislation which said “The provisions of this act apply only to ordinances or regulations adopted on or after the effective date of this act, June 13, 1989”. There were three (two cities-Boulder and North Las Vegas and one county-Clark) governing bodies that had codes or ordinances that were in effect before June 13, 1989.

On March 22, 1989 Assemblyman Danny L. Thompson questioned the legality of the Clark County Ordinance (registration, three day wait, NV Constitution question-as referenced by the recent post). The answer from the NV Legislative Counsel Bureau (attached) stated “It is the opinion of this office that the ordinances in question do not violate section 11 of article 1 of the Nevada constitution because they do not significantly infringe upon the right to bear arms.”

The Clark County Handgun Registration Ordinance (there are many other Clark County ordinances regarding firearms as well under the grandfather clause) was found in Clark County Code Title 12, Chapter 12.04. In summary it stated:

12.04.080: “When any sale of a pistol is made by a dealer under this chapter, seventy-two hours must elapse between the time of sale and the time of delivery….the pistol must be registered with the sheriff within twenty-four hours.”

12.04.100: “A dealer making a sale of a pistol, shall within 24 hours thereof, furnish the sheriff with a duplicate copy of the receipt…”

12.04.110: “Any person receiving title to a pistol, whether by purchase, gift, or any other transfer, and whether from a dealer or from any other person, shall, within twenty-four hours of such receipt, personally appear at the county sheriff’s office, together with the pistol, for the purpose of registering the same with the sheriff…….”

12.04.200: “It is unlawful for any person to own or have in his possession, within the unincorporated area of Clark County a gun, pistol, revolver, or other firearm capable of being concealed, unless the same has first been registered with the sheriff or with a police department of any on the incorporated cities of Clark County.”

In 2005, when I began developing the operational procedures for the future Clark County Shooting Park (and was serving as a Director of the NRA), I brought these ordinances to the attention of Senator John Lee who was the Chair of the Citizen Advisory Board for the Shooting Park as formed by the Clark County Board of County Commission. I explained that these ordinances precluded the shooting park (and other ranges in Clark County) from inviting out of county guests for competitions. As a result, we met with the Clark County Sheriff and METROs handgun registration unit who confirmed that they could not register 100+ guns on a Thursday for a Friday and Saturday competition. We then met with officials of the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) and advised them that ALL of their handguns at the SHOT Show were illegal and subject to confiscation by METRO. After overcoming their shock, their general council advised them that we were correct. Hence the SHOT Show in Las Vegas was in jeopardy. The NRA does not have their annual convention in Las Vegas for that reason.

Please see attached a letter from Senator Lee to Sheriff Young regarding this issue.

In 2006, therefore, Senator Lee introduced SB 92 which would have eliminated the grandfather clause from NRS 244. NSSF hired a full time lobbyist to protect the NSSFs interest in the SHOT Show. The NV Sheriff’s and Chief’s Association mounted heavy lobby efforts to defeat or modify the bill.

On March 14, 2007 there was a public hearing at the Grant Sawyer Building (for Southern Nevada input) and despite public notifications ONLY 10 people presented testimony in support of elimination of the grandfather clause. If the gun owners of Southern NV had showed up in force on that day, blue cards would be history. Unfortunately the firearms community was not focused on the repeal of the blue card system, it was not “one for all and all for one.”

What did happen, however, was that the elimination of the grandfather clause was changed to read as amendments to NRS 244.364, NRS 268.418 and NRS 269.222 all three amended as follows: Note, the only difference between the three statutes is that 244 identifies counties, 268 identifies cities, and 269 identifies towns. Only one county in NV has a population of more than 400,000. So this was amended to keep the handgun registration program in Clark County. NSSF was told that the 60 days for nonresidents was a balm to them and if they stuck with the elimination of the program the bill would be completely killed in committee. It was obvious that it was impossible to eliminate the blue card program at that time. Of interest is that the original law was to keep guns out of the hands of the mob. Now the mob has 60 days to register, so completely invalidating the original intent of the ordinance.

NRS 244.364 1. Except as otherwise provided by specific statute,the Legislature reserves for itself such rights and powers as arenecessary to regulate the transfer, sale, purchase, possession,ownership, transportation, registration and licensing of firearms andammunition in Nevada, and no county may infringe upon thoserights and powers. As used in this subsection, “firearm” means anyweapon from which a projectile is discharged by means of anexplosive, spring, gas, air or other force.2. A board of county commissioners may proscribe byordinance or regulation the unsafe discharge of firearms.3. If a board of county commissioners in a county whosepopulation is 400,000 or more has required by ordinance orregulation adopted before June 13, 1989, the registration of afirearm capable of being concealed, the board of countycommissioners shall amend such an ordinance or regulation torequire:(a) A period of at least 60 days of residency in the countybefore registration of such a firearm is required.(b) A period of at least 72 hours for the registration of a pistolby a resident of the county upon transfer of title to the pistol to theresident by purchase, gift or any other transfer.4. As otherwise provided in subsection 1, as usedin this section “firearm” :(a) “Firearm” means any device designed to be used as aweapon from which a may be expelled throughthe barrel by the force of any explosion or other form ofcombustion.(b) “Firearm capable of being concealed” includes allfirearms having a barrel less than 12 inches in length.(c) “Pistol” means a firearm capable of being concealed that isintended to be aimed and fired with one hand.

Clark County, the City of Henderson, and the City of North Las Vegas subsequently amended their ordinances or codes to reflect the revised NRS language and Henderson and CLNV deferred the registration to METRO.

Currently, Henderson, Boulder, CLNV and Clark County also have other pre 1989 grandfathered codes and ordinances on their books, and Henderson, CLNV and Clark County are still enforcing them. These are codes and ordinances not addressed by the above legal changes.

Senator Lee and I met with CLNV and advised them that their codes were no longer valid and we were informed that they will continue to enforce them.

As a result of these experiences I came to the conclusion that: the gun owners of Nevada need to be organized and represented by an Nevada gun rights organization. Only a strong pre-emption law that also had penalties to punish those governmental agencies who refused to follow NRS would be effective.

Consequently, we formed the Nevada Firearms Coalition to replace the defunct NV State Rifle and Pistol Association, and Senator Lee accepted a new pre-emption bill that would provide one gun law for all of Nevada. Unfortunately Senator Lee was defeated in the primary.

Our challenges are: To build up NVFAC, To put in place firearms supporter legislators, county commissioners and city council members, To raise funds to hire a lobbyist that will represent the gun owners of NV, To raise funds to establish a PAC, To sign on sponsors of our pre-emption bill in the assembly and senate, To push for other priority gun right legislation, ordinances and codes, To carry out the other goals and purposes of NVFAC for the gun owners of NV.

Strategy: There are four areas to attack the gun registration ordinance.

At the Board of County Commission. Get a majority of commissioners to agree with us and eliminate all the gun ordinances.

At the METRO finance committee. METRO is 64 million dollars in the red. The finance committee is comprised of three county commissioners and three city council members. If they can be convinced that the program is costing money with no results they can defund the program.

At the state legislature. Eliminate the registration approval with a state pre-emption that also has penalties for not repealing ordinances and codes that are contrary to law.

Challenge the law in court..

Activity:
1&2. Commissioner Rory Reid and Commissioner Tom Collins have requested audits of the registration program. Reid’s request was ignored. NVFAC will be pushing for a response to Mr. Collins request (see attached). NRA-ILA and NVFAC met with Commissioner Collins and requested the audit letter.
3. NVFAC has drafted a pre-emption law that eliminates all the various gun laws in NV including state, county, city and town. Senator Lee was defeated in primary, so we need sponsors in Assembly and Senate. This draft law also includes penalties for failure to comply.
4. The NRA-ILA has an active program to challenge the law in court, but so far every person who has been charged has had a record of other charges and violations. We have not found a “clean” defendant yet that we can challenge the law solely on the basis of the code/ordinance. In one case, the court ruled that the defendant did not have “standing” just because he was a resident of CNLV. He had to have been arrested/detained by the police for the specific code violation only.

The best solution may be “death by a thousand cuts” where we push forward on all four fronts. We are considering a County wide petition to the commission to repeal the law also. First we need the audit results to prove the ordinance is a waste of our tax money.

Sorry for the long explanation, but short answers do not reveal the true nature of the problem and it’s solutions.

Thank you for your questions, please feel free to contact me any time,

Don

Life member GOA and NRA. Member of SAF, NAGR, TXGR and Cast Bullet Assoc.

Thank you TBG for posting the response from Don Turner. I finally have the answer to my original question about NVFAC progress. I see they are at work and working on removing the blue card handgun registration. Great news!

Thank you TBG for posting the response from Don Turner. I finally have the answer to my original question about NVFAC progress. I see they are at work and working on removing the blue card handgun registration. Great news!

Working on it? Well, it is one of the stated goals however I don't really see any real meaningful progress or direction as of yet. Unfortunately it has all been talk so far in my opinion. From what I can tell, they are really pinning most of their hopes on a legislative solution to all the problems. I have my fingers crossed but in the interim I'm not waiting for them and suggest others don't as well. I continue working in my city (Henderson) to make permanent changes to local ordinances. There is NO one solution. We will have to mount a multi-pronged attack if we want to win in the end in any reasonable amount of time.

TBG

Life member GOA and NRA. Member of SAF, NAGR, TXGR and Cast Bullet Assoc.

If you find out the meeting dates, please post them here. Are the board meetings open to the general members?

Yes I will. The board meetings are open to general membership according to the bylaws. Members may speak to board memebers but may not vote. We may only vote at the yearly membershp meeting. This is why those from the OC movement should join and attend the meetings. We need to be heard and help the direction the association takes.

TBG

Life member GOA and NRA. Member of SAF, NAGR, TXGR and Cast Bullet Assoc.

If we have some more immediate business we need to accomplish, the bylaws allow us to call a special meeting of the general membership as long as we have 25 members who want to meet.

5.1.2 Special Meetings: Special meetings of the general membership may be called by the President or
upon written petition of twenty‐five (25) members in good standing and eligible to vote. The
President shall call a special meeting within 40‐50 days following the filing of the petition with the
President and the Secretary.

I have some ideas of some things I would like to see changed, but won't list them here in a public forum.